ain's log, stardate 50485.2 i've come to marva four, a planet near the badlands to rendezvous with an informer who claims to have information on the whereabouts of the maquis leader and former starfleet official michael eddington. (electrical crackling i'm looking for a friend of mine.

cing'ta? throw it on the ground. turn around. hello, captain. eddington. mr. cing'ta won't be joining us. his shuttle had an accident on the way to this rendezvous. is he dead? you just don't understand the maquis, do you, captain? we're not killers.

but i assure you he's very much alive. how merciful. you condemned him to a slow death. it's more than he deserved. he was going to sell us out to you. he betrayed us. now there's a subject youknow alotabout. you've been on my tail for eight months and now that we're face to face that's all y y have to say to me? i will say the rest at your court martial. tell me, captain. what is ititthat bot- or the fact that it happened on your watch? you didn't "leave" starfleet. if you had, i wouldn't be here. you betrayed starfleet. you used your position as security chief to feed the maquis information about us and at the same time you misled us with false information about them. there is a word for that-- treason.

those people-- they were colonists on salva two. they had farms and shops and homes and schools and then one day theheederation signed a treaty just likikthat. they made these people refugees overnight. ow it. these people don't have to live here like this. we've offered them resettlement. they don't want to be resettled. they want to go home to the lives they built. how would you feel if the federation gave your father's home to the cardassians? i'm not here to debate federation policicwith... i didn't tellyou to turn around.

you and me and starfleet took everything away from them. remember that the next time you put on that uniform. there's a war out therer and you're on the wrong side. you know what i see out there, mr. eddington? i see victims but not of cardassia or the federation. victims of you-- the maquis. hese people on the dream that one day they could go back to those farms and schools and homes but you know they never can and the longer you keep that hope alive the longer these people will suffer. go ahead, shoot me. someday i may take you up on that.

after me. you'll regret it. sisko todefiant. eddington just beamed out. trace his transporter signal. kira: we've got it, captain. he's on a maquis raider. they're breaking orbit and heading out of the system. beam me aboard and lay in a pursuit course.

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course is zero mark 213. commander? changing course now to zero mark 213. we're on his tail, captain. maximum warp. how long until we're in firing range? 22 minutes. not good enough. he'll reach the plasma fields minutes before we're in range. we need some help. near the gamma seven outpost what's the position of the starshipmalinche? . hmm. perfect. is the new holo-communicator rerey? he's eager for someone to give it a try. always like to please the chief. open the channel to captain sanders on themalinche. are you receiving my image captain? yes, and you? you appear to be sitting on my bridid. it may take me a while to get used to this. i'm not fond of uninvited guests. i'll try not to overstay my welcome but at the moment i need your help.

can you intercept? you seem pretty eager, captain. what did this maquis raider do? it's not what they did. it's who's in commanan- michael eddington. ah. everyone's favorite traitor. captain, if you don't mind... you want him in your brig. we'll cut him off. you can grab him. sanders out. kira: themalincheis moving to intercept. prepare to target the maquis ship. i want to disable them, but i want them alive. understood. send a security detachment have them prepare to... captain, eddington's dropped out of warp. go to impulse. raise shields. what is he doing? he's changed course. now he's headed directly for us. worf: he has locked his weapons on us. he's no match for thedefiant. is this some kind of suicide run? not eddington. chance to make his move. mr. worf-- fire phasers.

we got a massive computer failure. every computer system is down... and all the backups. we're losing control over... everything-- weapons, navigation, helm, propulsion... bridge to engine room. commander, get down there. find out what's going on. try to route the auxiliary controls through the... before you waste a lot of time running around trying to restore computer control you can't. you'll find your memory cocos are completely wiped and have to be reprogrammed from scratch. these work remarkable well. glad we were able to procure one. you left a cascade virus in thedefiant'scomputers. but i assure you it took a great deal of time to devise one that wouldn't be detected by odo or chief o'brien.

ist of charges against you. well, as long as you're making a list why don't you add this. (explosions) you know what your problem is? you made this personal. it didn't have to be. it wasn't with me. i have no animosity, no harsh feelings toward you. i wish i could say the same. does it really pay to risk yourself, yoyo ship, your crew on a personal vendetta? and would starfleet approvo? i don't need any lectures about starfleet from you. and no matter what h hpens here today it's not over between us. i'm the one in control here, captain. your ship is defenseless. i could destroy you right now but i won't. like i said, the maquis aren't killers. our quarrel is with the cardassians, not you.

(explosion) cease fifi. am i supposed to thank you? no. i'm not going to make you grovel for your life. unlike you, captain, i know when to walk away.

thedefianthas s turned to the station but not under its own power. the starshipmalinche had to tow us home. we've got our work cut out for us. eddington's cascade virus disabled every memory circuit on thedefiant. we'll have to reload and reprogram the entire database. how long? if we were at a shipyard with a space dock... we're not. how long? two weeks-- and that's working with three shifts around the clock.

i'll do what i c c. i've removed two similar cascade viruses hidden on the station's main computer. by transmitting a signal eddington coululhave disabled our entire defense system. how long until you've eliminated all of eddington's handiwork? i can't guarantee we found all of them. eddington was d.d. nine's chief of starfleet security for 18 months. he had the opportunity to infiltrate and compromise every system on the station. then check every system. i intend to. sir, have you ever reminded starfleet command that they stationed eddington here because they didn't trust me? no. please do. what word do you have from starfleet intelligence? two bolian freighters have disappeared near the badlands. they belelve the maquis are responsible. what were they carrying?

what would they want with it? commander dax is analyzing the possibilities. help chief o'brien get thedefiantback on line. i want to get out there as soon as possible. aye, sir. what can i do for you, captain? i don't know quite how to tell you this so i'll just say it. starfleet command has given me a new assignment. ring him i they want me to bring in eddington. n? no. your mission orders have changed. did they give you a reason? well... you've been after him for, uh, eight months. not to put too fine a point on it, but... you haven't gotten the job done. look, captain i understand how you feel. the way eddington had fooled you, i...

words. i didn't mean fooled. no. you're exactly right. i was fooled but it won't happen again. that's not the issue. starfleet also believes that where eddington is concerned you're vulnerable. he just knows you too well, captain. so maybe it's time for someone he doesn't know to go after him. good hunting. thank you, captain. dax: the good news is starfleet intelligence is making progress breaking the maquis communication codes.

we're out of the game. but what the hell, right? you win some, you lose some. you've always had problems with the "lose some" part of that. what can i say, old man? in 25 years of duty i have never been taken off an assignment until now! right. this is about being taken off the assignment. it has nothing to do with a certain ex-security officer we both know. he worked under me for r year and a half. i saw him almost every day read his reports, had him to dinner. i even took him to a baseball gagame and i never saw it. it's my job to be a good judge of character and what did i do? not only did i not see it, i put him up for a promotion. he played his hand well. he played me, all right. and what is my excuse? is he a changeling? no. is he a being with seven lifetimes of experience? no. is he a wormhole alien? no. he's just a man, like me... (yells)

that's good. "good"? it's good you're working it out on the bag, benjamin... because you're going to have to let go of this one. eddington is someone else's problem now and you're going to have to live with that. kira: ops to captain sisko. what is it, major? sir,r,ou'd better get up here. there's news and it's about eddington. report. eddington just upped the ante-- he attacked the cardassian colony on vevez prime with a biogenic weapon. what?! he launched three stratospheric torpedoes and spread cobalt diselenide throughout the biosphere. a nerve agent that is harmless to most humanoids but it is deadly to cardassians. wowo: the cardassians are evacuating. and eddington has announced that the maquis intend to reclaim the planetto. what i don't understand is where the maquis got the materials to make a biogenic weapon. i do.

the selenium and the rhodium nitrite they hijacked can be reformulated and with some work synthesized to produce... cobalt diselenide. where's themalinche? they're headed for veloz prime but by the time they get there... eddington will be long gone. given the amount of chemical compounds eddington stole how many of these weapons will he e able to make? enough to poison every cardassian colony in the d.m.z. there must something we can do. worf, are they any other starships near veloz prime? themalincheis our only ship? in the sector. so unless they stop eddington the maquis have turned the tide. there is another ship in the area.

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it's going to be tricky. only half the systems are back on line. and most of those are not operating at full capacity. what about the warp drive? but the inertial dampers haven't been fully repaired. the weapons are also on line but t e targeting scanners have to be manually calibrated. we can shoot but god knows what we'll hit. what about communications? thedefiant'scom system is fried-- and i do mean fried. we still have our com badges. i'm afraid not. they won't work either not with all the interference from the unshielded e.p.s. conduits. well, whatdowe use? cups and a long string?

w com system. cadet? cadet nog, reporting as ordered, , r. stand easy. o'brien: with most of the bridge cocorol functions off line all orders to engineering will have to be relayed. in the interest of clarity messages should be relayed with one voice. mimier academy here. i figured you'd want somebody who could hear you while the bridge was exploding around you. exploding? we may be going into combat. det? sir. yes, sir. absolutely, sir. i'm glad to hear it. report to the bridge. aye, sir. "exploding"? let me give you all the bad news at once, sir. we have no cloak, no transporters no replicators, and the stabilizing gyros are at only 50%. so don't ask for any sharp turns unlele you want to end up doing barrel rolls.

ef? the new holo-communicator i installed works perfectly. let's be thankful for small favors. prepare for departure. all right, say it. what? that i have lost all perspective that i am turning this into a vendetta bebeeen me and eddington and that i am putting the ship, the crew and my entire career at risk and if i had any brains at all i'd go back to my office, sit down i wasn't going to say that. that's what you were thinking, right? no. actually, what i was thinking is... you're becoming more like curzon all the time. i don't know how to take that. consider it a compliment. and the next timeigo off half-cocked on some wild-eyed adventure think back to this moment

captain, ops has cleared us for departure. very well. engine room, standby impulse power. engine room, bridge. standby impulse power. standby impulse power. stand by to increase deuterium injection rate. configure driver coils for impulse speed. set e.p.s. taps at level three. ops. seal the airlock and release docking clamps. close exterior hatches depressurize the airlock. detach umbilicals, clear all moorings. sisko: thrusters at station keeping. initialize deflector field. docking clamps released. helm, ease us out. port and starboard thrusters at one-quarter.

distance from docking ring, 50 meters. sixty... seventy... eighty. bring g about, old man. hard to port, ten degrees pitch. minimal power to aft thrusters. let the momentum bring us around. hold at five degrees pitch. we're coming around too fast. i see it. ease off on the port thrusters. pulse starboard ththsters point-five-second bursts. engine room, helm control is sluggish. realign the navigational gyryr. realign the navigational gyros. helm, i hope you see that pylon. bow thrusters, pitch up 16 degrees. full power to port thrusters.

engine room. one-quarter impulse power. engine room, bridge. one-quarter impulse power. helm, lay in a course for the badlands. engine room, stand by for warp speed. set intermix to point zero-one. initialize warp chamber on my mark. three, two, ono. mark. warp one, sir. increase speed to warp six as soon as possible. increase speed to warp six as possible. sir, engine room reports we could go to warp seven. well done, people. mr. worf, i think k should start running battle drills. aye, sir. captain's log: supplemental. after completing a series of readiness drills we've entered the plasma fields of the badlands and begun our search for eddington.

on the plasma warheads. transfer power from the forward shields to the targeting array. engine room, where are those field stabilizers? engine room, bridge. where are those field stabilizers? major, engine room reports field stabilizers should be on line in 15 minutes. oh, i've got something. it's a small neutrino signature bearing 218 mark 135. distance approximately 900 kilometers. it's moving. uis raider. helm, set intercept course. engine room at three-quarter impulse. nog: engine room, three-quarter impulse. kira: incoming transmission from the maquis raider. it's eddington. put him through. you just couldn't resist the temptation to come after me, could you, captain? i i ke to finish what i start. i'm afraid you're going to be disappointed... again.

but i do have a consolation prize for you. kira: incoming transmission. sending over a document. it's a book. one of my favorites. les miserables. thank you, but i've read it. recently? if not, you should read it again. play close attention to the character of inspector javert-- the french policeman who spends 20 years chasing a man for stealing a loaf of bread. sound like anyone you know? why don't you beam over and we'll discuss it? captaiai closing on the maquis ship. 700 kilometers. ready weapons. phaser brinks charged. lock target. worf: locked. sisko: it's over, eddington. why don't you surrender your vessel and prepare to be boarded? it's a tempting offefe but i have other plans.

the neutrino readings are e ssipating. it's not a ship. it's an unmanned probe set to transmit a false warp signature. he wanted to lure us here. why? he's up to something. outside the plasma fields. helm, bring us about. get us out of here. engines at full impulse. hard to port. full thrusters. cocose 180 mark zero. sir, chief o'brien doesn't recommend increasing velocity through ththplasma fields. objection noted. now get me morespeed. engine room, bridge. more speed. kira: sir, picking up a distress signal. it's the starshipmalinche. they've been ambushed by the marquis.